Sticky Notes
by DJ Lee
Summary: Derek has a new obsession with sticky notes and it’s driving Casey crazy. Dasey.


**Disclaimer:** Life with Derek is copyright Shaftesbury, Disney Channel, Family Channel, and Nickelodeon. This story was created for entertainment purposes only. No copyright infringement intended. It will be removed immediately and without question upon request.

**Sticky Notes**

She was expecting an empty shirt drawer, missing jewelry box, heck, even a missing book bag! What she wasn't expecting was a nice pink sticky note pasted onto her forehead the moment she opened her eyes. It was peculiar; it was unusual, yet for some reason felt completely natural all at once. Perhaps it was living with Derek for the past two years that had put her on edge and gave her a keener sense of locating discrepancies in her everyday routine. So that was how she found herself staring blankly at the blurry edges of the sticky note that was too close to her liking.

Casey groaned, ripped the offending object off her face, and glared at the chicken scratch handwriting of her tormentor. _Morning Princess!!_

_Typical_, she thought to herself as she detached herself from her sheets and went about preparing for the day. She was quite surprised that nothing seemed out of the ordinary aside from the strange pink greeting earlier that morning. As she was grabbing her book bag off the floor she noted that she had yet to run into Derek that morning to fight for the bathroom. It was left strangely free, as if waiting for her to use. She dismissed the strangeness and hurried down the stairs for some breakfast.

And there he was, munching on his bowl of cereal. He hardly spared her a glance as she passed by him to grab something from the fridge. She sent him wary glances all the while, determined to figure out his motive, but when he merely stretched his arms over his head casually and then dumped his empty bowl into the sink, she couldn't help but wonder if he _forgot_ that he did anything at all. She was proven wrong because the moment he turned to leave the kitchen, he winked in her direction and said, "See ya at school, princess." And then he was off, leaving her to gape at his retreating back.

"Casey, you are aware that if you leave your mouth open any longer flies are going to fly in, right?" Edwin commented as he hopped off his chair.

Snapping to her senses, Casey immediately closed her mouth and quickly finished off her breakfast before she too made a mad dash to school.

* * *

"Are you okay, Casey? You seem a bit… frazzled," Emily trailed off, taking in her friend's tired eyes.

She let out a small sigh and leaned her head against the cold metal of her locker for a few seconds, relishing the coolness. "Yea, Em. I was just up a little late studying for our English test today."

"We have an English test today?" exclaimed her panicked friend. Emily quickly ripped open her book bag for the book that they were supposed to have read earlier that month.

Casey let out a small chuckle at her friend's display. It seemed that after two years of Casey's hectic organization schedule and constant reminders, Emily still managed to forget about tests, quizzes, and a few assignments from time to time. "Relax, Em. You still have until after lunch, you know."

Emily shook her head in disagreement. "I can't relax, Casey. The test is on what… three chapters?"

"Four," Casey corrected automatically, finally removing herself from the locker door to actually open the contraption.

The other girl raised a hand to her head in hopes of reducing the impending headache she was sure to have in a few moments. "I haven't read a single one!" she exclaimed frantically.

She couldn't help but release another small chuckle at her friend before she turned her attention back to her locker. After removing the lock, she yanked open the door and was about to put a few of her books away when she noticed something out of the ordinary once again.

"You okay, Case?" Emily asked at her friend's sudden silence. She lowered the book and peered over Casey's shoulder to see what had stolen her friend's attention. After seeing nothing out of the ordinary, Emily raised an eyebrow. "Case?"

Casey gingerly lifted off the sticky note stuck to back of her locker. _Happy Monday!_ It read.

"It's just a couple of stickys, Case. What's the big deal?" wondered her friend.

She wasn't even sure what he was trying to do, so until she gathered more information, she decided to hold off on telling Emily anything. She shook her head to clear her thoughts and stuffed the note into her pocket before picking out the books she would need for her next class. "Nothing, Em. Just spaced out a bit, that's all."

Emily seemed to have bought her excuse for she merely shrugged and tugged her friend down the hall to their homeroom.

Just as they turned the corner, someone approached the two girls and rested his arms casually on their shoulders. "Ladies," he greeted with a smirk.

"Hey Derek," Emily greeted back.

"What do you want, Derek," she asked, irritated with his mere presence.

He feigned hurt, bringing a hand to his heart. "Ouch, Case. I didn't know it was a crime to greet my favorite stepsister and our neighbor."

She rolled her eyes at his poor theatrics. "I'm hardly your favorite. Now what do you want," she repeated.

He merely grinned before removing his arm around her shoulder, the other one having left Emily's for his feigned hurt. "Nothing. See ya around, Case," then turning to nod at Emily, "Em." Then he was off.

"What's up with him?" wondered Emily as she stared down the hall at his retreating form.

"I have the slightest clue," sighed Casey as redirected her attention for the section of the hall they were originally heading. She had to pause in her tracks when she heard several people snicker and Emily gasp, before hiding a few giggles. _This can not be good_, she thought to herself as she whirled around to face her best friend. "He put something on my back, didn't he?" she deadpanned.

Emily tried stifling a few more giggles before placing a hand on her friend's shoulder to turn her around and then removing the offending objects.

Casey glared at the stickys in Emily's palm before yelling her trademark phrase, "DEREK!" to which earned her a laugh from said person as he made a mad scramble down the other side of the hall. She crumpled up the stickys which read in bright bold words, _**WATCH OUT FOR KLUTZILLA!!**_, and threw them in the nearest waste bin. That infuriating jerk. What was he up to?

* * *

Sitting in Math class wasn't any better for Derek kept poking her from behind with the eraser of his pencil. She wanted desperately to whirl around and yell at his face but was not looking forward to _another_ detention for having done so last time. She groaned in frustration, trying her best to focus on what their teacher was saying but found it very difficult to concentrate when the poking increased. She would have bitten his head off if the teacher hadn't turned her attention to Derek.

"Mr. Venturi," she called, to which Derek's head snapped up in attention, "is there a certain reason why you've been disrupting Ms. McDonald?"

She turned around to gauge his reaction but he merely shrugged and answered smoothly, "I was trying to return the stickys she leant me."

The teacher narrowed her eyes in suspicion and if it weren't for Derek's pencil nudging her another time, she would've just kept her mouth shut. Sighing, she reached out and grabbed the pad of stickys and forced out a "thanks" through gritted teeth.

The rest of the class went by as if there were no disturbance at all and much to Casey's dismay, Derek resumed the poking when the teacher's back was turned. _Why me_, she cried in her head.

When the class finally ended and everyone was filing out the door, Derek leaned forward and swiped back the stickys he had been forced to hand over earlier.

"Hey!" she protested.

He shrugged casually and made his way to the door, leaving her to glare at his retreating form once again.

"Ms. McDonald," the teacher called, causing Casey to whirl around to face her. "You have something on your back."

She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion before realization dawned on her. Reaching over her shoulder, she easily found the sticky stuck loosely to her shirt and glared at the crowd Derek walked through. Although the sticky was empty, it still irritated her that he had the nerve to stick something on her.

"There's more," the teacher pointed out as Casey was about to leave the class.

She brought a hand up to her face in frustration and politely requested the teacher to help in the removal of the rest that she could not reach. That jerk, how many had he stuck on her without her knowledge?

* * *

When she finally returned home, she marched straight up to him as he reclined in his chair watching TV. "What's your damage?" she cried.

He shrugged his shoulder casually and returned his attention to the television screen, further irking her.

"Are you going to answer me?" she tried again, unable to keep the anger out of her voice.

He glanced up at her, a smirk on his lips as he reached into his back pocket, producing the pink pad of stickys and then before she could register what had happened he had slapped a sticky on her forehead and retreated into the kitchen.

She ripped the sticky from her face, glaring at the message the pink paper held, _Nice try, but not telling_. It was as if he had been expecting her outburst and written this note in advance to annoy her and allow him a quick escape all at once.

"Derek!"

* * *

She had no idea if it was a good thing or not that she had barely spoken to him for a week. He always found a way to escape her wrath and leave a sticky in its place all at once. Just yesterday when she woke up, there had been another sticky on her face, like there had been since the first morning it was there. She glared at the _Morning Princess!!_ on the note and threw it in the waste bin by her desk.

"He's driving me _crazy!_" she finally conceded to Emily.

"I can tell. You've been having stickys stuck on your back the whole week," commented her friend as she blew on her nails, waiting for the nail polish to dry.

"It's not just my back, Em. It's all over my room!" she cried.

Emily was quiet for a moment, something Casey wasn't expecting. Then finally after a minute or two, she asked, "Did the stickys have anything on them?"

Casey scoffed. "I have no idea. I stopped reading them after the first time in the hall where he called me Klutzilla again."

Emily laughed at the memory, earning her what she knew was a glare over the phone before she cleared her throat. "Sorry. But I was thinking… what if he's trying to relay a message to you?"

She rolled her eyes. "What? That I'm still a klutz? Or that I'm a nerd who's still on the bottom of the social ladder? I think I already know that, Em."

The other girl released an exasperated sigh. "That's not what they all say, Case. You seriously have not read the other notes?"

"Of course not, why would I when I already know what he's going to say? Every time I see one I automatically remove it without looking at it," she answered.

Emily sighed in exasperation at her friend's denseness. "What would you do if the first Klutzilla note was just a cover up?"

"A cover up?" she asked bewilderedly.

"Yup, to throw you off track, if you understand what I mean." Judging from her friend's silence, it was obvious that she didn't. "Just _look_ at the stickys from now on, Case. It'll make much more sense." Then, before Casey could protest or argue back, Emily ended the call. She briefly wondered if she should tell her friend what those notes have been saying, but then decided against it. She had to figure it out herself.

* * *

She wondered if there was a certain reason why everyone was looking at her like that. Everyone was smiling her way, now that she thought of it. The only time they even remotely laughed at her was the first day he started pinning stickys on her. Even the family was giving her weird smiles and when she asked them what was wrong, they refused to say anything. She furrowed her brows in confusion.

She didn't want to dwell on the subject for long. She had to keep her focus on her grades. Ever since he started with the whole sticky fiasco, her mind had been all over the place. Sighing, she reached into her locker, ripping the sticky off the back and tossed it aside without sparing it a glance.

"Aren't you even going to look at that?" asked someone.

She jumped nearly a foot in the air from the sudden inquiry. Once she felt her heart wasn't going to jump out of her chest, she turned to face her friend who was leaning casually against the lockers.

"Why should I? It's probably one of his lame insults again," she dismissed, reaching in for her history textbook.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," said Emily in a semi-singsong voice, earning a confused look from her friend.

Casey sighed, but ignored her friend's comment and went about with grabbing her supplies from her locker. "Come on, Em. Let's go to homeroom."

Sighing at her friend's refusal to look at the sticky, Emily looped her arm through her friend's and headed down the hall.

* * *

She was curious why Emily wanted to go to Smelly Nelly's after school but didn't bother asking since she was relieved to take a break from home where all she'd get were more stickys stuck up her face. She hadn't expected to forget that they were going to the restaurant during Derek's shift.

"Why are we here, Em," she groaned out to her friend.

"Because you're a good friend and want to hang out with me?" offered the other girl.

Casey rolled her eyes at the blunt response. "Fine…" It was then that Derek decided to stroll up to them and place down their drinks, sending her a wink before returning to his post. "That's strange… no comment, no insult or anything of the sort," she muttered half to herself.

Emily could not believe how oblivious her friend was being and merely pointed to the sticky that was stuck on Casey's shoulder.

Following her gaze, Casey reached for the sticky and crumpled it up, not bothering to read it, causing Emily to smack her forehead in frustration. "What?" she asked, noticing the look her friend and neighbor was giving her.

"You seriously haven't taken our chat yesterday to heart?"

She shrugged. "I thought about it, but then I dismissed it. I mean, what are the chances of Derek not insulting me, humiliating me, or annoying me?" At her friend's disbelieving look, she finished, "Slim to none. That's why I'm not even bothering to look at them."

Emily shook her head in disagreement but knew how stubborn Casey could be so she decided that changing the topic would be best. "Sheldon called last night."

"And?" Casey prodded, ignoring the next sticky Derek left on her as he placed down their orders.

"He said that he's staying in town for the weekend," finished Emily, a huge smile on her face.

"Em, that's great!" gushed Casey before she reached over to crumple the recent sticky Derek left on her, much to Emily's exasperation.

* * *

It was Saturday afternoon and she had just come home from the mall with Emily, so she was just about ready to spend the rest of her day in peace when Derek decided pop up out of nowhere.

"You _could_ read the sticky every once in a while," he said as he leaned casually against the wall.

She rolled her eyes as she passed by him, quickly ripping the sticky off of the door. "And you choose _now_ to talk after ignoring me all week and then annoying me with tons of stickys?"

He shrugged and flashed her his usual smirk. "Yeah, only because you still haven't gotten the message after so long."

"And just what _is_ the message?" she countered, her hand holding the doorknob loosely as she faced him.

He released a small sigh before he pulled away from the wall to approach her. Gently placing his hands on her shoulders, he pushed her through the semi-open door. "Just do yourself a favor and actually _read_ the stickys. It will save you a lot of trouble and stress."

Still wary of his true intentions, she stepped into her room to find it considerably clearer of the stickys which had plagued her room the entire week. She could only spot three of the offending notes stuck to various objects in her room. She approached the sticky which had a bright bold number one on it.

_This is not a joke, Case_, it read. She rolled her eyes at that. What could that possibly mean? _Follow the other stickys to get to your prize._

"You're kidding, right?" she shot at the boy leaning casually against her doorframe.

Although he was still smirking, most likely from amusement, he shook his head. "Go on," he urged.

She rolled her eyes at his response but did as she was told anyway. She approached the second sticky and peeled it off her lampshade. _If I were to suddenly tell you that I don't hate you, would you feel the same?_ It said. This must be a joke, she told herself, but when she looked to him for answers, he had turned away from her and had his hands in his pocket. Either she was seeing things or his cheeks were really reddening. She decided that she was seeing things and moved toward the last and final sticky on her desk.

There was a small rectangular box underneath the sticky and she couldn't help but wonder what it was. She peeled off the sticky and read it, _I like you a lot, and if you feel the same way then I hope you will accept this present._

"Derek!" she whirled around to face him. "This isn't funny," she said slightly angry while waving the sticky in the air.

"It's not meant to be funny," she heard him mumble. "I'm serious… and… just open the box." He still refused to look at her, deciding that the framed family photo outside in the hall was quite interesting.

Casey released a sigh and gripped the box uneasily. What if this ended up to be some sort of sick joke? Derek always had something up his sleeve and took every chance he got to make her life miserable, so why would this time be any different? But as she chanced a glance at him, she decided that she'd give him just one chance. After that, she'd never trust him ever again. She popped off the lid and was startled to find what lay inside.

"D-do you like it?" he asked nervously from her right. He had never sounded so nervous before and she didn't know what to say, let alone think.

"T-these tickets… H-how did you…" she trailed off, unable to make coherent sentences.

Derek shrugged, though she could tell he was quiet bashful about it. "I know that you really like them.., and I heard from Emily that the tickets were all sold out… so I… I kinda used my connections to get them for you…" He had no time to react for she had pulled him into a bone crushing hug.

"Thank you! Thank you!" she cried, all the while hugging him closer to her.

He could hardly believe that she was hugging him but found it in himself to wrap his arms around her to return the hug. Just when he thought that he was in the clear, she suddenly pulled away from him and poked him in the ribs.

"Wait, if you were planning this, then what was up with the week full of stickys?" she demanded, coming to her senses once the euphoria had all but worn off.

"I…I was trying to tell you! But since I don't normally do this type of stuff, I decided to tell you through stickys, but you kept ignoring me and throwing all of them away," he explained, rubbing the back of his head nervously.

"Derek! You had 'Klutzilla' on them!" she retorted.

He shrugged, sending her an apologetic look. "That was only the first one! And it was purely for fun! The others weren't like that! I swear!" He fiddled around with the pad of stickys in his back pocket before pulling them out to show her.

She was still slightly wary of him, but took the stickys anyway, looking through all the messages he scribbled on them. _You look really pretty today. I'm sorry for annoying you, can you forgive me? I've got a present for you, want to see? This is not a joke, Casey!_ She had only skimmed through the first few, but it appeared as if the rest of the stickys held the messages along those lines.

He was still giving her a bashful, though apologetic smile.

She couldn't help but roll her eyes at Derek's uncharacteristic behavior and tugged on his hand, leading him through the room to the hallway. "Come on, Super star. It says here that the concert starts in a few hours so let's get going."

She couldn't miss the huge grin that broke out on his face as they yelled to their parents about where they were going and hopped in the car. She really should thank Emily for her advice, no matter how much she ended up ignoring it. It would've saved her a lot of stress and trees used for those poor sticky notes.

* * *

**A/N: Hey! I'm back with another one-shot just like I promised. I hope you enjoyed it just as much as I enjoyed writing it, though it did come out differently from what I originally had in mind... Anyways, I know the end is a little confusing about the timing and all. Derek got concert tickets for Casey and he needed to push her to finally look at the stickys or else the present would have gone to waste. Well, like I said, I hope you enjoyed it. I'll be back with more one-shots and remember to review! Your feedback motivates me to write C:**


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